India has the highest Doodles representation within BRICS and SAARC nations.

Rashi Aditi Ghosh/Zee Research Group/Delhi

As Google turns 14 with an animated doodle to celebrate the day, India have had its fair share of Doodles from the world’s best known search engine to mark special local occasions.

Google hosted more number of Doodles to celebrate Indian sentiment than any other country in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) block. Search engine Google that has been linking its delightful Doodles with cultural and social events across the globe is gradually developing India as one of its favorites.

Google first dedication to India through its doodle was made in 2003 on the eve of India’s 56th Independence Day and since then the cherished journey of dedications has completed nine glorified years. Along with Doodles, Google has also given Indians a liberty to use their favourite search engine in nine Indian languages.

A Zee Research Group (ZRG) study shows that India is definitely one amongst the most celebrated nations with most Google Doodles dedications if compared within BRICS as also the countries within the SAARC block.

While three of Indian festivals and important events were represented colourfully through Doodles in 2012, other nations like Brazil, Russian Federation and South Africa only had just one Doodles dedication each during 2012.The only nation in BRICS that could come closer to India was China with two representations.

In 2012, Google beautifully portrayed Indian tradition and Culture through its doodle representations including India’s 63rd Republic day featuring three joyful elephants denoting Indian culture , three umbrellas representing the “Tiranga ”and the letter `O` in the word Google was depicted through the Ashoka Chakra.

Many other Doodles like the one made on International Women`s Day had Indian representations through a red dot symbolizing Indian Bindi and following last year’s tradition, Doodles again celebrated India’s 66th Independence Day on August 15 in 2012 featuring national bird of India i.e. Peacock.

Is it smart marketing or genuine love for netizens in India? Rajul Gupta, business analyst from ANUVA Technologies (an Internet Search consulting company) says, “Unlike many other nations, India is low with options of search engines. We do not have a “Made in India” search engine. Therefore, relying on Google is pretty obvious while Google is also tapping this opportunity turning hyper-local through its Doodle offerings.”

He adds that, “India is a multilingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation. The Indian calendar is one long procession of festivals so it becomes easy for Google to dedicate more Doodles to India and the number comparatively goes higher than other nations.”

During 2011 Indian dedication in Google‘s Doodles was evidenced in a big way. These included a doodle each from Google for 80th anniversary of the movie Alam Ara on March 14, Holi on March 19, 65th Independence Day of India on August 15, and 82nd birth anniversary of artist Anant Pai on September 17. Google India organized a competition for creation of Doodles by young talent in India and the winning entry of Indian musical instruments created by Varsha Gupta on the eve of Children’s Day on 14th November was hosted on Google world page.

ZRG analysis shows that India’s representation in Doodles is also the highest amongst SAARC nations. While Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives Nepal and Sri Lanka had no dedicated Doodles, Pakistan apart from India was the only SAARC nation that had one dedicated doodle both in 2011 and 2012.

India is an important market for Google and a recent search engine study showed that 60 per cent Indian students rapidly used Google as their first source to search for information related to educational courses and institutes. These searches are growing at over 46 per cent year-on-year, said the recently published results of Google India Survey.

Another survey among adults on Google trends showed that India was next only to Pakistan when it came to search for pornographic material.